Birss The Integrated Software And Hardware Of The Apple Lisa

The integrated software and user interface of Apple's Lisa by EDWARD W. BIRSS Apple Computer, Inc. Cupertino, California ABSTRACT In 1979 Apple began to develop Lisa, a workstation to enhance the productivity of office workers. The hardware was built around a Motorola 68000, a bit-mapped display, and a mouse. The user interface is intuitive, using real-world concepts rather than computer concepts. It is easy to learn, and provides for both novice users still learning the system and users that have mastered the system. The user interface is modeless and consistent. The uniformity of the user interface supports transferable learning—the ability to learn an operation once and apply it over and over again in another application in a different context. The user interface also supports data interchange among documents of the same or different types. This interchange of data, coupled with the multitasking operating system and the multiple windows of the Lisa, permits the use of several tools to perform a task that one tool alone could not accomplish. The Lisa user interface and its applications provide an environment that allows the user to concentrate on what is to be accomplished rather than on how to accomplish it. In this way, Lisa provides tools to improve the productivity of the office worker. 319 The Integrated Software and User Interface of Apple's Lisa INTRODUCTION Apple Computer formed the Lisa team in 1979 to develop a personal computer that would dramatically improve the productivity of typical office workers (professionals, managers, and their assistants). To accomplish this goal, a hardware and software solution radically different from current personal computer offerings was required. At that time, personal computers had the functionality but lacked the capacity, speed, and ease of use necessary to reach a market of users who did not want to learn the details of how a computer worked. Inspired by SMALLTALK1 the Lisa team developed a system that has the functionality and speed users require, and additionally has a common user interface that supports gradual learning and promotes interchange of data among the same or different applications. The combination of multiple tools with a consistent user interface and data interchange among applications permits the user to work with several tools concurrently to accomplish a particular task. LISA HARDWARE The Lisa is a Motorola 68000-based personal computer with 512 or 1024 Kbytes of main memory, a memory management unit, a bit-mapped display, a detachable keyboard, a mouse, a built-in 400-Kbyte floppy disk drive, and a 5- or 10megabyte Winchester disk (see Figure 1). This hardware provides the functionality, speed, and ease of use required to support the Lisa user interface. The 68000 microprocessor was not the first choice. Development began on a home-grown bit-sliced system to provide the computing power. When the 68000 became available in sample quantities, we evaluated it and found it had…